Diplomatic ripples from embassy and consulate attacks to continue

posted at 1:21 pm on September 17, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Normally, nations rely on their diplomatic staffs to calm the waters after unrest within and between nations. When that unrest targets the diplomatic missions, though, the process takes longer and leaves significant damage to the relationship. The Washington Post warns that not only will violent protests continue in Muslim nations, it will result in reduced or eliminated diplomatic posts, which will make it more difficult to mend ties:

In Cairo, the U.S. Embassy returned to full staffing Sunday, a spokesman said, for the first time since Tuesday protests against an anti-Islam video made in the United States sparked turmoil across the Muslim world. But the American diplomatic presence remained reduced elsewhere in the region, meaning that there were fewer routes to repair relations even as they came under the most strain since the wave of democratic change caused last year by the Arab Spring.

In Tunisia, where additional security has been deployed to protect the embassy, the Saturday decision to withdraw nonessential U.S. staff from the mission there appeared to jar Tunisian officials, who have marketed the country as a model of democratic transformation after the peaceful toppling last year of the longtime president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Tunisia’s 2011 protests set the rest of the Arab world afire — and led, in the end, to newfound freedoms for many citizens to express their distaste for their own governments and for the United States.

Speaking of “newfound freedoms” to express “distaste” …

In an address to the nation Friday night, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki condemned that day’s violent attack on the U.S. Embassy and an American school, in which four protesters were killed. He said those who organized the protest — widely described here as religious hard-liners known as Salafists — had “crossed a red line.” Yet he also sought to appease the sentiments of those reportedly angered by the video, “The Innocence of Muslims,”saying Tunisia would work with Egypt to sue its producers.

Tunisia’s foreign minister, Hedi Ben Abbas, wants the US to send back its diplomatic personnel, most of whom evacuated Tunis in the wake of the riot that sacked the embassy. His message? Trust us:

“We understand that there was a failure,” he said of security measures at the embassy and school. “Let’s be clear, the plan we put in place was not enough. It was weak.”

“The government of America cannot be responsible for the movie,” he said. Similarly, he said, “the Americans cannot blame the Tunisian government for the behavior” of protesters.

“The United States should trust us again,” Ben Abbas said. “We need them more than ever to support democracy.”

In other words, they need us more than we need them. But Ben Abbas offers a false equivalency in this message. The Tunisian government had the responsibility to protect the embassy from attack, and they failed. They also had a moral responsibility before and after to avoid feeding the nonsense outrage over a six-month-old YouTube video and to refrain from stoking anti-Americanism. Those failures are not the act of a friend, and we have no responsibility to put American diplomatic personnel in danger while the government there tries to appease paranoia by promising to file lawsuits in order to validate the rage of radicals. We had no responsibility to silence Americans to keep from hurting the feelings of Tunisians, which would be antithetical to our own identity and interests in real freedom of expression.

If the new government of Tunisia wants our help in establishing democracy, then they need to do more than just say trust us. They need to demonstrate some backbone and stop giving radicals a pretext to establish credibility. Otherwise, all the help we can provide won’t keep them from sinking into either an overt theocracy like Iran or a wafer-thin “democracy” used as a cover by the Muslim Brotherhood to establish a similar kind of system in a more secular context. Either way, the outcome will be hostile to our interests, and we don’t need to waste resources and perhaps lose American diplomats as we did in Benghazi in that process.

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I think he was attempting sarcasm. This 1979 redux has our resident trolls in a tither. They can’t address the reality that Obama is topping Carter in losing the entire Muslim world, and not just one nation, so they have been talking about squirrels instead and pretending acts of war are just another day at the office.

It is true that it is the host nation’s responsibility to provide adequate security for foreign diplomats. But it is the responsibility of the United States to determin if the conditions in the host nation make that responsibility feasible.

Somehow, Ambassador Stevens (and untold national security materiel)was in Benghazi -the al Qaeda-influenced wild, wild east of Libya on 9/11 in an un-hardened facility with inadequate exterior AND interior security with an inadequate escape route and unsecured safe house.

Moderate muslims are those who only want just HALF of the infidels killed, hard core want ALL the infidels killed.

Just wondering where is our muslim population these days, you know, those who moved to USA for freedom, freedom of speech, etc? Our muslim representatives in the House? Would love to hear what they have to say.

Has Dear Leader made any public statements about any of our embassies..?

d1carter on September 17, 2012 at 1:33 PM

No, the King is busy campaigning in Ohio today.

See why we need to just appoint him President For Life? Obviously his attention is so focused on re-election, the campaign seriously distracts him from making rhetorical and weak statements about his foreign policy.

I’m reading about foreign affairs now and copying and pasting links because now it’s really important!

tommyhawk on September 17, 2012 at 1:24 PM

No you are not. You can’t find out anythng TRUE about foreign affairs looking to HuffPo, NYT, etc. Look up the Diplomad on blogger. There is someone from the foreigh service who knows what he is talking about; who has been there, done that.

I think Hot Air is doing its readers a disservice by not linking to the Diplomad over on the right side.

Just wondering where is our muslim population these days, you know, those who moved to USA for freedom, freedom of speech, etc?

Officially, about 2.7 million. But that doesn’t include those whove illegally slipped across our border, or the many tourists, visiting family members, students, and temporary workers who have outstayed their visas.

Let’s just say more than enough to cause considerable problems and chaos should they choose to do so.

Moderate muslims are those who only want just HALF of the infidels killed, hard core want ALL the infidels killed.

as long as they fight each other now…

Just wondering where is our muslim population these days, you know, those who moved to USA for freedom, freedom of speech, etc? Our muslim representatives in the House? Would love to hear what they have to say.

THIS is what our President does while his entire foreign policy collapses, such as it was, and the Middle East burns and our personnel are murdered. This is why his domestic policy agenda has been disastrous. This is a snapshot of a man who was, and remains, to immature and feckless to be President of the United States of America.

Go sit (or kneel) with them in their mosques and I think you’ll be singing a different tune.

Starting at the webpage of a local “moderate” mosque, it took me just about three clicks to find videos of a pro-jihad, pro-sharia Saudi cleric denouncing America and calling for the imposition of the caliphate.

its a good point. but the iranian shia revolution is hardly a model for these sunni revolutions.

but my point is, both in tunisia and egypt, the moderate islamists got in power and the salafists stayed out of power. this dynamic with 2 distinct islamist fields did not happened during the iranian revolution.

Starting at the webpage of a local “moderate” mosque, it took me just about three clicks to find videos of a pro-jihad, pro-sharia Saudi cleric denouncing America and calling for the imposition of the caliphate.

Go sit (or kneel) with them in their mosques and I think you’ll be singing a different tune.

Starting at the webpage of a local “moderate” mosque, it took me just about three clicks to find videos of a pro-jihad, pro-sharia Saudi cleric denouncing America and calling for the imposition of the caliphate.

So are most Muslims in the middle east in the sense that they aren’t actively attacking anyone.

Pew Research (2007): 5% of American Muslims have a favorable view of al-Qaeda (27% can’t make up their minds). Only 58% reject al-Qaeda outright.

Terrorism Research Institute Study: 51% of mosques in the U.S. have texts on site rated as severely advocating violence; 30% have texts rated as moderately advocating violence; and 19% have no violent texts at all.

NOP Research: 68% of British Muslims support the arrest and prosecution of anyone who insults Islam;

After a few trips I’ve made to the Middle East there is not one,NOT ONE muslim I trust.They are nothing but scammers looking for a buck and deep down behind the smiles they want us all dead.Leave them to the sand.

For those of you willing to accept the administrations claims you have to believe the following:

There was a protest where a bunch of people “just happened” to show up with rocket grenade launchers. Susan Rice says this is common in that part of the world. Sorta the way one would show up at a football game with a six-pack of beer, I guess.

The protesters were so incensed by the thought of their prophet being mocked that they divided themselves into two groups with one group providing direct fire on the consulate while the other provided indirect fire. Perfectly plausible if the protesters “just happened” to have some advanced military training. Keep in mind that these things were spontaneous, there was no leader giving the orders.

Likewise, they spontaneously figured out how to set up a defensive position that repelled a counter-attack and kept the battle running for a couple hours. Amazing how the protesters “just happened” to figure out how to lay down defensive fire zones.

The tech skills of the protesters were so advanced they were able to hone in on the Ambassador in the safe house by means of triangulating is cell phone or something. It would not be a “just happened” sort of thing if the diplomats were betrayed by the security forces and the is no question that the protesters knew exactly were these people were.

But of course it must not have been an attack because that would undermine Barak Hussein Obama and to do so is even more profane to liberals as the idea that anybody would present Islam’s prophet in less than sterling fashion.

I belivee it is time to close ALL embassies in ALL Muslim countries and withdraw our people… and see how the next decade settles out.

cane_loader on September 17, 2012 at 1:25 PM

Pull our people, close the diplomatic outposts and expel their diplomats, family and hangers-on from the United States. Believe me, those that are stationed here don’t want to go home.

totherightofthem on September 17, 2012 at 1:52 PM

Good sentiments. + 6.022 x 10²³

I would modify them as follows:

1) Start with any country that allows protesters over the wall that cause any damage. Give Turkey and others an incentive to protect our embassy.
2) Include visas. Cancel existing visas, and issue no more new ones. Until we get recompense, a grovelling apology, and a promise for no more problems. Then they start from a position of distrust.
3) No aid. Period.
4) Support Israel to the hilt. They are actually Civilization’s front line and blast shield.

I’m certain that the White House press room has a sign like they have in Starbucks. Except instead of telling the “reporters” the special brews of the day, they list the designated scapegoat of the day. What we heard with that hot mic the other day was essentially the MSM coordinating their attack because Mitt was the designated evil-doer with “timing and tone” being the refrain that they all repeated.